Blessing in Disguise (31 page)

He should have just left without her.

After a breakfast filled more with arguing than food and armed with a telegram that gave the section numbers of the Moyer ranch, he and the stubborn Miss Asta Borsland set out in a rented team and wagon. The man at the livery assured them that ranchers along the way would be glad to give them a room at night. Visitors were few and far between, making strangers all the more welcome.

Two letters addressed to Elkanah Moyer accompanied them, one of them sent by Asta herself.

“I really think it would be better for you to stay in town until I return.” Hjelmer tried to argue his point again. “After all, this is not seemly, me a married man and you an unmarried woman.”

“Ah, what am I to do if he really
is
married?” At that she broke into tears again. The very thing that had undone him earlier. Soaking handkerchiefs seemed to be a special skill of hers.

Hjelmer never had been able to ignore a woman’s tears.

Chapter 28

Blessing
October 1

Ingeborg felt as though she were trapped in mud and couldn’t run.

Grace held a handful of black dirt up and let it run through her fingers, unaware of the impending danger.

The horse pounded closer.

“Run, Grace! Oh, God, help!” Ingeborg could hear herself screaming as she ran. Someone else was running too.

A form flashed past her. Paws headed for the horse like a bullet shot from a thirty-ought-six. He leaped for the horse’s nose and clamped on. The horse reared, flailing forefeet trying to dislodge the thing on his nose.

Ingeborg scooped up the little girl, clutching her to her breast. Heart thudding like a steam engine in full throttle, Ingeborg watched as Paws was flung across the yard by the terrified horse. Two men got hold of the bridle and brought the beast to a quivering halt.

“Thank you, God. Thank you, thank you.” She panted the words, patting Grace who had begun to whimper. “It’s all right, little one. You’re fine now.” She kissed Grace’s cheek and handed her to her mother. “That was a scare, for certain sure.”

“Mor, Paws!” Andrew darted to the dog’s side and knelt in the dust. “Paws, good dog, you stopped the horse.”

Thorliff skidded to a stop beside his brother. He knelt and felt Paws’ chest. “He’s still alive.”

“He’s not bleeding. Is he broken?” Andrew looked up with tear-filled eyes. “He’s such a good dog. Please, God, let him be all right.”

Ingeborg and Haakan reached the boys at the same time. Haakan opened the dog’s mouth and peered at his gums. “Doesn’t seem to be bleeding internally.” He put an arm around Andrew and held him close while the boy struggled against the tears.

“Mor, he saved Grace’s life.” Thorliff stroked his dog’s ears, turning his head so that he could wipe his cheek without seeming to.

“I know. Thank the Lord for that.” Ingeborg stroked Andrew’s hair. “Easy son.”
Please, God, this little dog gave everything he had. Let him stay with us, please. You say you care about everything that we care about, and you can see how my boys are sorrowing
.

“Let’s get a gunnysack and carry him over to the barn in the shade.” Haakan nodded to Baptiste, who ran to the barn.

“If he’s breathing, maybe he just got knocked out,” one of the other men offered.

“Let’s hope so.” Haakan lifted the dog’s eyelid. Paws flicked his hand with a weak tongue.

“Ma, did you see that?” Andrew’s blue eyes sparkled through the tears.

“Thanks be to God.” Kaaren, hugging Grace to her shoulder, said what everyone else was thinking. “Thank you, God, for a little dog who stopped a horse like that.”

As she passed, all the women reached out and patted Grace. Sophie clung to her skirts, eyes still wide from the scene. The men went back to work on the cheese house, and the sound of hammers and saws again filled the air.

“Let’s put him on a quilt by the stove instead. He could be cold from the shock.” Ingeborg looked to Haakan, who nodded his agreement.

Thorliff and Baptiste slipped the sack under Paws, then Haakan and Thorliff carried him, depositing him on the folded quilt by the stove in the kitchen. Andrew knelt beside him, and Paws tried to wag his tail, barely brushing the floor but moving nonetheless.

“Go get a dipper of water and trickle some into his mouth.”

Thorliff did as told, and Paws licked his hands.

Ingeborg carefully felt the dog’s ribs and along his back, watching for any sign of flinching. “I think he might have a broken rib.” She felt the bone again and nodded. “I think so. That would make him hurt awhile, but like people he’ll heal from it.”

“I wish my grand-mère was here. She’d know what to do.” Baptiste joined the boys in stroking the dog.

Ingeborg smiled at the boy’s certain voice. Metiz had helped save other lives in the years they’d been friends, and Ingeborg missed her every day. It seemed she’d been gone for years and not just two months. She used to be gone all winter, but now that they’d built her a good solid house, she stayed through the year.

“I’ll be glad when she gets back.”

“Me too.”

Ingeborg left the boys with the dog and went back outside to see what she could do to help. Grace came up and pulled at her skirt.

“Hi, little one.” Ingeborg squatted down to be on eye level with her niece.

Grace’s fingers flew in the signs for thank you.

“Slow down.” Ingeborg made a slowing motion.

Grace grinned at her and nodded, then moved her fingers more slowly.

While Ingeborg had to concentrate, she got the drift. Now how to answer? Slowly her fingers formed y-o-u a-r-e w-e-l-c-o-m-e. While she knew Grace could do some lip reading, she felt honor bound to try to learn the signs like everyone else.

Grace flung her arms around her aunt’s neck and kissed her cheek.

Ingeborg hugged her close, blinking several times. Such a terrible close call that had been. And it wasn’t like no one had been watching her. In her mind’s eye she could see again the little girl happily playing in the dirt. The others were running hither and yon, but Grace seemed to enjoy being alone at times.

Grace tugged on her hand, so Ingeborg followed her over to the rising walls of the cheese house. Grace peered in the section left open for a wide door. Since the floor was three feet down, one of the men was hammering together boards for stairs. Grace indicated the whole scene with a sweep of her arm and, grinning up at her aunt, clapped her hands.

Ingeborg smiled back, dropped a kiss on the little nose, and clapped her hands too. “Yes, my cheese house is wonderful.”

“Sure ’nough will be big.” Mr. Rasmussen grunted as he set another block of sod on the wall. He indicated the wall with a crooked finger. “I’m learning how to build a soddy. That is good, huh? That way I’ll know how to get my own up. Did Mr. Bjorklund talk to you ’bout what I said yet?”

Ingeborg shook her head.

“I asked if my wife and young’uns could stay the winter here with you. I’ll head west in the next couple of weeks and go scouting for land, then when I find some, I’ll come back and work out the winter for Haakan. Soon as spring comes, we’ll all head out. Take the train to Bismarck or Minot or so and get a horse and wagon for the rest.”

Ingeborg nodded. “Seems a sound plan to me. I’ll be glad for the extra hands here.”

“Mor!” Andrew called from the back stoop. “Come quick.”

“I’m coming.” She smiled at Mr. Rasmussen and headed for the house. “What is it?”

“Paws is sitting up. Come see.”

Ingeborg took the hand he extended and followed his tugging into the house. Paws indeed was sitting up, panting, but he lay back down with a slight whimper when she stroked his head. “Let’s just let him sleep, all right?”

“But when we started to leave, that’s when he sat up. I think he wants to follow us. You know how he likes it when so many people are here.” Andrew sat down beside his friend.

“Maybe you should stay here with him for a while, then. You want me to get Deborah and Ellie so the three of you can play checkers?”

Andrew nodded. “Thanks, Ma.”

After sending the girls inside, Ingeborg wandered over to the fire where the coffeepots hung steaming from iron tripods. Geese honked their way south overhead, making her wish for a chance to go hunting. She saw Baptiste look up and knew he felt the same. Once the cheese house was done, he would be free to hunt every afternoon after school. That’s why he and Thorliff had been splitting so much wood to keep the smokehouse going.

She poured herself a cup of coffee and blew on the steaming mug.

“Come on over,” Kaaren called. “We’re discussing our school for the deaf. Agnes has a really good idea.”

Chapter 29

The Ranch
October 1

“I’d like you to meet my wife, Mrs. Moyer.” Kane nodded to the major standing beside him. The men had just come in for supper after the day spent rounding up the remaining cattle to be transported to the army post.

“Pleased, I’m sure.” The officer tipped his hat. “Major John Grunswold at your service. This is a recent occurrence?”

“Yes, about a month ago. The difficult part is that she doesn’t speak English, only Norwegian. We are trying to teach her to speak English.” Kane smiled at Augusta, who wore her stoic look. He knew she wondered what they were saying.

Augusta watched them talk, wishing with all her heart she knew what their words meant. It seemed to be about her, the way they kept glancing in her direction.
Oh, Lord, I am so weary of not understanding the people talking around me. Please give me some hint of what they are saying
.

“I speak fair German. Learned it at my grandmother’s knee. Perhaps I can help a bit. The languages are similar.”

“Please sit down. Supper will be ready shortly.” Kane indicated the chairs around the roaring fireplace. He seated Augusta in one and pointed to the nearest for the army officer and the other chairs for the two enlisted men who’d been standing by the door.

“Frau Moyer, sprechen sie Deutsche?”

Augusta gave him a strange look. “Jeg kan snakke Norsk, ein bischen Deutsche.” She held thumb and forefinger half an inch apart to show “a little” and shook her head. “But my name is Miss Bjorklund, not Frau Moyer. You are mistaken.” At his look of utter confusion, she repeated her comments more slowly.

“But Moyer here said you are married to him—have been for a month.” He kept his German slow and precise.

Augusta’s heart flew into high speed. “Nei!” She shook her head, her eyebrows flat together over eyes that snapped with indignation. “I was on my way from Valdres, Norway, to Blessing, North Dakota, to my mor’s boardinghouse and must have got on the wrong train in St. Paul. Mr. Moyer said he would take me to Blessing.”
Father in heaven, help me, please. Please let this not be happening
. She shot a look of consternation in Kane’s direction.

He looked totally confused, like a child watching a game he’d never seen before and trying to understand it without instructions. He shrugged when he looked in her face. “I . . . I don’t understand.” He looked to the major. “Please, what is she saying?”

“She says she is not married to you, that you agreed to take her to Blessing.”

“Blessing?”

“The town in North Dakota where her mother lives. She says she got on the wrong train, and when she got to Ipswich, you said you would take her to Blessing.”

Kane groaned as the memory of their meeting flashed before his eyes. “But we
are
married. A justice of the peace performed the ceremony in Ipswich. Ask her about the paper she signed.”

“But I thought that was for citizenship,” Augusta answered the major, shaking her head again. By this time her head felt as if it were about to fall off from all the shaking. “I can’t be married. I don’t even know this man. I didn’t have any more money, or I would have purchased a ticket back to St. Paul.” She didn’t think she could feel any more stupid if she tried.

Again the major translated what he understood, and now it was Kane’s turn to shake his head.

Augusta was dumbfounded. She was married? Scenes flitted through her mind. The way he’d greeted her the morning she found him in her bed, the gentle way he helped care for her when she was sick. She could feel the heat climb her neck like a forest fire going up a tree. He’d seen her in her nightdress. If she’d been the type to faint, she knew right now would have been a most opportune time.

“Supper’s ready,” Morning Dove called from the kitchen.

“Excuse me, I . . . ah . . . I . . .” Augusta turned and fled to her room. After bathing her face in cool water from the pitcher, she smoothed back her hair, tucking a couple of errant strands back in the bun. No need to pinch her cheeks for color, that was for certain sure. She held the cool cloth to them again, then patted down her neck. If only she could hide under the covers and never come out again.

Kane—Mr. Moyer—thinks he is married to me. What am I to do? Lord, what am I to do?

Would marriage to him be such a terrible thing?
The thought made her stop her patting hand.
After all, you’ve thought how you might like a man like him
. The heat returned full force. She sank down on the edge of the bed and stared at her hands. She should be out there helping Morning Dove serve the meal.

Instead, she laid her hands along her temples as if to stem the thoughts chasing pell-mell through her mind. “I am married. I am legally the wife of Elkanah Moyer. Mrs. Elkanah Moyer,” she said aloud.
Oh, Mor, I’ve made such a mess of things. What am I to do?
She looked around the room, recognizing the special things he had done in this room. “He had prepared for his bride. And he got me instead.” Another thought crossed her mind, strong enough to bring her to her feet and make her stride out the door with enough force to carry her to the kitchen table.

“What happened to the woman you planned to marry?”

Major John Grunswold translated, and Kane shrugged.